These Dark Times
by kelphead18
Summary: Nico di Angelo has been through a lot in his life. He has lost people he loves and been an outcast, except for a few friends. How far will he go to protect them?


Nico di Angelo used to be a cheerful, inquisitive and innocent boy. Of course, that was mostly before his mom died. He had always been happy, had a smile on his face all the time. Then his life started going in crazy directions. After his mom died, he and his sister were put in the Lotus Casino. They spent 70 years in the hotel, un-aging and ignorant of the time that was passing. When they finally left the hotel and started normal lives at a boarding school, they were almost immediately whisked off into a world of gods and supposedly mythological creatures. And one of the gods was his father. That had been amazing to him, that these things were a real part of his life. He was excited by the quest some of his new friends and his sister went on. Then she died and his world was turned upside down. He was angry and sad inside, and became reclusive.

Bianca, she had been the most important part of his life. She died on that quest, and it was all because of him. One of his new friends, Percy, had promised to protect her. And now she was dead, and Percy was alive. He couldn't help but hate him for that. It really was his fault, wasn't it? He had held that grudge against him for so long, and let the anger build up inside him until that day he confronted Percy about it. That was also the day he found out his father was Hades. It was built into his character to hold unnecessary grudges and have so much hatred and anger inside him. And he hated that.

Children of Hades were always outcasts, he knew that much. He wasn't really supposed to have friends or be social. So he spent time learning how to use his powers in the Underworld. He hated his powers too, the way they just made him more of an outcast. Except, maybe, his powers with ghosts. Maybe he could use them to have at least someone to talk, even Bianca. That hadn't turned out very well with Minos. Eventually he went back to camp and made a couple of friends there. Not very many though, just one or two. And surprisingly enough, one of them was Percy. He got over the stupid grudge and forgave him. That part of him, he did like.

Acceptance was another issue. Most of the people at camp still thought of him as weird and creepy. And really, he couldn't help the creepy part. That sort of came with being a son of Hades, he couldn't change that. So he mostly kept to himself, never expecting anyone to need him because that was the way things were supposed to be. And then there was the Great Prophecy, which basically said Percy was going to die. No way was he going to let his best friend just die. So he convinced him to take a dip in the Styx so he could have the best chance of surviving. He thought that was all he would be involved in, that he could go back to hiding from everyone. And then he helped save the world by standing up to his father and convincing him that the other gods needed him as well. That was a good day. They won the war; Rachel became the Oracle and issued a new Great Prophecy. But they didn't need to worry, because it probably wouldn't begin for at least a lifetime.

Boy, were they ever wrong.

Two months after the second Titan war, Percy disappeared and Nico lost another huge part of his life. During the eight months he was gone, Nico discovered a Roman camp for demigods, almost like Camp Half-Blood. And when Percy showed up there, he was overjoyed. But for the sake of the quest he had to pretend he didn't know him, and it hurt to do that. So it went on until the Seven were united and headed off to Greece. Then came the worst part, the event that almost broke Nico di Angelo. His two best friends in the whole world were in Tartarus. It brought back that angry side of him that he didn't like, that the Fates would keep putting his friends in peril. And the rest of the Seven too, they were his friends as well and they were on the most dangerous quest in history.

Two weeks passed, and Percy and Annabeth were out of Tartarus. He, Reyna and Coach Hedge had taken the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood and stopped a war between the Greek and Roman demigods. But now he was on his way back to Greece, to help his friends save the world. It would be the toughest war any of them would go through, but Nico had to put that aside to help his only friends. He had to believe they would win, and he was going to be certain that his family would live through it.

He had sworn his life on it


End file.
